Bowie officials showed their commitment to both two-legged and four-legged residents by supporting two initiatives aimed at caring for stray and pet cats.

On Nov. 17, Bowie started construction of a “cat room” at City Hall for lost domesticated cats and also formally approved a city-wide “trap-neuter-release,” or TNR, program designed to manage the feral cat population.

There could be more than 3,000 free-roaming cats in Bowie, based on a formula developed by Phoenix-based Petsmart Charities.

The cat holding room is an expansion of a temporary animal shelter built into City Hall in 2011 and is the result of a partnership between the city and Bowie Citizens for Local Animal Welfare, or CLAW.

Tara Kelley-Baker, president of CLAW, and CLAW vice president Michael Semeniuk presented the city with a $20,000 check on Nov. 17 to help fund the approximate $114,000 expansion and will reimburse the city $84,000 when the project is complete, Kelley-Baker said.

Kelley-Baker said the temporary shelter will prevent pet owners and animal control staff from traveling to the Prince George’s County animal shelter in Upper Marlboro as often for lost pets.

Dogs and cats will be housed in the temporary shelter for up to five days before taken to the county shelter, according to Bowie animal control.

“Bowie should be able to take care of its own animals,” Kelley-Baker said. “I think we should set an example for other cities that are able to do this and reduce the strain on the county facility. This is the best thing for Bowie. We’re really excited about it.”

Also on Nov. 17, City Council members agreed to support the TNR program by updating city code and potentially financially investing in it.

Most of the TNR efforts in the city are being organized by local animal welfare group Connie and Teri 4 Animals, said Connie Carter, co-president of Connie and Teri 4 Animals.

The TNR approach seeks to reduce feral cat colonies by neutering them and releasing them back into the wild, as opposed to euthanizing them, Carter said.

“I was extremely pleased to see that the city is now recognizing [TNR] as the way to help the cat population,” she said. “We see from working with the animals from the [Prince George’s County] shelter that there is a large cat population because we see them coming in all the time.”

Lila Pavelec of Bowie said she has been conducting TNR for 10 years and has released around 900 animals.

“Feral cats were created by people who were irresponsible, did not get their animals fixed, and released them out the door because they like to go outside,” she said. “We created this problem and we need to fix it. The only way to end it is catch these cats one at a time.”

Steve Roberts, who oversees Bowie’s animal control department, said both the new TNR program and the additional cat room will be assets to the city.

“We support and believe that TNR is very important and it’s being conducted in Bowie as we speak so we want to support that,” he said. “Our main objective [with lost pets] is to return any pet we find straight to its owner, and with the five days [pets can be held in the temporary shelter], this will allow us more time.”

Dear Porky and Buddy,Here it is November with snow and a smallish cat just showed up on my back porch a few days ago.

I think she is sheltering under the porch, but when I go out to try to approach her and coax her inside she takes off into the woods and I don’t see her again for hours.

I have been leaving food and water for her and it is gone every morning. I would let her in and take care of her in a heartbeat, (like my other three cats), but I am afraid she is feral and will never come in. How can I help her survive outside in this weather?KarenP.S. Her name is Sparky

Dear Karen,During the Great Depression, hobos would draw a picture of a cat near a house where a kind-hearted woman lived who would give them food.

Nowadays, there are some homes that have a sign on the roof that says, “Stop by here for help.”

The signs are invisible to humans but it seems that homeless pets can see them clearly.

So thanks for having that sign installed.

Now that it’s there you have three issues.

First, you need to figure out a way for Sparky to have adequate shelter if, in fact, she remains outside all winter.

Under your porch is a great start but not enough.

Is there room there to put a small dog house with straw inside and insulation all around it?

Use straw, not hay, and no blankets or anything that will not stay dry.

The opening should be just barely enough to let her get inside and turned away from prevailing winds.

Preferably there should also be a small escape hole somewhere so it doesn’t feel or act like a trap.

If that won’t work there are lots of online directions for outdoor shelters for feral cats.

You can find some at www.alleycat.org

With the shelter problem solved, you now have the health issues.

Talk to your vet to see if she will allow you to try to trap Sparky and bring her/him in to be neutered and for a basic health check and vaccinations.

If that won’t work, call the Humane Society for help and suggestions.

You don’t want little Sparky (assuming she is a female) to go into heat and get pregnant.

Nor do you want him/her to be around your cats, if they go outside, if he/she has any infectious diseases.

Finally, remember that the fact that Sparky runs from you does not mean she is necessarily feral, i.e. a cat who has never been around humans.

She may just be scared, and rightfully so if she was abandoned somewhere and has been trying to survive on her own.

There are relatively few truly feral cats, but many terrified homeless ones.

So get her some shelter, keep putting food and water out (but bring it in at night so you don’t attract unwanted wildlife), do your best to deal with health and neutering concerns, and let her continue to see you being her benefactor.

Some day, there is a chance that she will suddenly decide to stroll right into your house, but only after she trusts that you are sufficiently tame!

Speaking of houses, the Oswego County Humane Society is moving just down the street.

Our office and clinic will now be located at 110 W. Second St., Oswego, NY.

Phone: (315) 207-1070.

Email: ochscontact@hotmail.com

Website: www.oswegohumane.org

The Oswego County Humane Society provides spay/neuter services and assistance, fostering and adoption of animals in urgent need, humane education programs, and information and referrals to animal lovers throughout Oswego County.

The Kansas City Pet Project said it is taking in the largest number of animals it’s had in years after a growing number of people have surrendered their pets.

The shelter said that shelters across the Kansas City metropolitan area are unusually full of dogs and cats needing homes right now.

One of them, a boxer mix named Luna, was given up by her owner because of issues with her owner’s landlord.

The KC Pet Project’s Tori Fugate said pet surrenders are up about 40 percent. Money issues are a common reason. The shelter said it does everything it can to try to help the pet stay in the home.

“If it’s a matter of food, we offer them food,” Fugate said. “If it’s vet care, we give them resources so they can get the pet the care they need to keep them out of the shelter, because absolutely, this should be the very last resort.”

She said owners should try to find a new home for the animal with a family member or people they know on social media.

The KC Pet Project is set to take in 10,000 pets this year. That’s the most the no-kill shelter has had since 2007. It has saved 2,400 pets lives just this summer alone.

The shelter is running a Tackle Pet Homelessness special through the weekend in honor of Sunday’s Chiefs game against the Seattle Seahawks. Dogs weighing 40 pounds or more, which is most of the dogs in the shelter, can be adopted for $40. Adult cats can be adopted for $25. Kittens are $50, but people who want to take home two kittens can get the second one free.

In addition to forever homes for its animals, the shelter is also looking for people to serve as foster families or those who can make financial donations.

A FOOD bank has been set up to help poor Scots feed their starving pets.

Becky’s Pet Food Bank has already been inundated with more than 60 kind-hearted volunteers offering to collect food donations for those struggling to feed their pet cats and dogs.

Despite only being launched this week, food drop-off sites have already been secured in Edinburgh, Fife and Perthshire.

But founder Carol Begg is hoping more businesses across Scotland will volunteer as designated zones to help collect food to help families avoid having to give up their beloved animals.

Carol, 47, who has been rescuing animals since she was 15, said: “What we’re trying to do is help people who have pets who are struggling financially at the moment.

“We want to avoid them having to give up their animals because they can no longer afford them as that is a really traumatic experience for anyone to go through.

“Critics can sometimes say, ‘Well if you can’t afford to keep a pet, you shouldn’t get one in the first place’ but in reality some families have found themselves in unexpected difficulty that they’ve never experienced before.

“If we can take the worry of where their pet’s next meal is coming from away and stop them from choosing whether to feed their animals or themselves, then we’ve done what we aimed to do.”

Kelly’s boyfriend Duncan Gracie with doggy goods to be sent to Manchester

She added: “The response we’ve already had has been absolutely massive.

“I’m quite lucky in that I know a few people with businesses in Scotland and they’ve said that they’re willing to be drop-off points.

“We’ve got some in Fife, Perth and Kinross, Perthshire and Edinburgh but we’re really hoping to spread it all around Scotland to the other cities and big towns like Glasgow and Aberdeen.”

Carol claimed that some people using the pet food bank have been sacrificing their own meals to leave money for petfood – so her food bank could help many families cope.

She said: “At the end of the day, people are struggling to afford food but, if you think about it, we are a nation of animal lovers.

“We’ve got people sharing the only food they have with their pets.

“We want people to stop having to choose between feeding themselves or their pets.

“My concern is the animals but also to help their owners by taking the pressure off them.

“There are a lot of charities helping with food donations so I wanted to set one up for people and their pets.”

Initially, the food bank will focus specifically on cats and dogs. However, they will be open to appeals from owners of other animals to find food donations.

They also hope to help struggling rescue shelters who are left dealing with pets which have been given up for rescue or abandoned due to financial difficulties or other lifestyle problems.

The organisation are collecting donations for the Edinburgh Rucksack Project – giving pet food supplies to homeless people who can’t afford to feed their animals.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – An American veterinary group issued guidelines on Wednesday on how to handle and potentially quarantine pet cats and dogs that may have been exposed to humans with Ebola.

Dogs and cats are not known to be capable of getting or spreading Ebola. But Spanish health officials killed a dog belonging to a nurse who got Ebola, stirring widespread protest. U.S. authorities quarantined the dog of an American nurse with the virus.

The guidelines from the American Veterinary Medical Association aim to help state governments plan their response to Ebola, which has killed more than 5,000 people in an outbreak in West Africa and a handful of people in Europe and the United States.

According to the guidelines, state health officials should evaluate a pet’s exposure to a patient with Ebola and contact with other humans and animals, with detailed questions about where the pet sleeps and and where it has gone outside the home.

Based on that assessment, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can help public health officials decide whether to quarantine a pet. The veterinarians provided a detailed list of protocols for transporting an animal to quarantine, handling its food and waste and protecting caretakers from exposute.

Ebola testing of animals will be done only in specific cases in consultation with the CDC, the veterinary group said.

If an animal tests positive for the virus, not just for antibodies, the pet should be euthanized and incinerated, the guidelines said.

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV)– The BISSELL Pet Foundation™, supported in part by BISSELL Homecare, Inc., will award $10,000 to Cat’s Cradle of the Shenandoah Valley to support their spay/neuter efforts. Funds will provide spay/neuter surgeries for 200 foster and community cats.

“With literally millions of homeless pets euthanized every year in the U.S., we focus on funding programs that will do the most to change this heartbreaking outcome,” explains Cathy BISSELL, Founder of the BISSELL Pet Foundation. “It brings me and my team so much joy to know we are helping to save the lives of thousands of animals through these grant awards.”

Established in 2011 by Cathy Bissell, a devoted pet lover and advocate, the BISSELL Pet Foundation addresses the growing problem of displaced, unwanted and homeless pets by providing assistance to shelter and rescue programs, and by creating awareness about pet overpopulation, in the hopes of finding every pet a loving home.

“We are very grateful to the BISSELL Pet Foundation for a generous grant that will support our community owned cat spay/neuter program, as well as our foster/adoption program” said Suzanne Auckerman, Cat’s Cradle of the Shenandoah Valley Executive Director. “Cat’s Cradle works very hard to reduce intake and euthanasia at our regional shelters by offering assistance to pet owners who need help to spay or neuter their cats, and by rescuing, fostering, and adopting out shelter animals. This grant will be a big help to us as we work with pet owners and shelters to reduce pet overpopulation and find homes for adoptable cats and kittens.”

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV)– The BISSELL Pet Foundation™, supported in part by BISSELL Homecare, Inc., will award $10,000 to Cat’s Cradle of the Shenandoah Valley to support their spay/neuter efforts. Funds will provide spay/neuter surgeries for 200 foster and community cats.

“With literally millions of homeless pets euthanized every year in the U.S., we focus on funding programs that will do the most to change this heartbreaking outcome,” explains Cathy BISSELL, Founder of the BISSELL Pet Foundation. “It brings me and my team so much joy to know we are helping to save the lives of thousands of animals through these grant awards.”

Established in 2011 by Cathy Bissell, a devoted pet lover and advocate, the BISSELL Pet Foundation addresses the growing problem of displaced, unwanted and homeless pets by providing assistance to shelter and rescue programs, and by creating awareness about pet overpopulation, in the hopes of finding every pet a loving home.

“We are very grateful to the BISSELL Pet Foundation for a generous grant that will support our community owned cat spay/neuter program, as well as our foster/adoption program” said Suzanne Auckerman, Cat’s Cradle of the Shenandoah Valley Executive Director. “Cat’s Cradle works very hard to reduce intake and euthanasia at our regional shelters by offering assistance to pet owners who need help to spay or neuter their cats, and by rescuing, fostering, and adopting out shelter animals. This grant will be a big help to us as we work with pet owners and shelters to reduce pet overpopulation and find homes for adoptable cats and kittens.”

The solution to rabies outbreaks, the overpopulation of dogs and cats, strays, cruelty to and neglect of pets is not animal shelters. It is responsible pet ownership.

Humans must be discouraged from, even penalized for, neglecting and abandoning pets. Puppies and kittens are very cute so that humans unthinkingly buy or adopt them. The trouble is puppies and kittens grow up to become adult dogs and cats that are no longer cute. Getting tired of and bored with them, humans find that caring for them properly is both costly and difficult. To be healthy, cats and dogs have to be fed the right food, not just leftovers; when they are sick, they have to be taken to the veterinarian for treatment and given medications regularly after being taken home—all of which cost money.

So irresponsible humans, when the novelty of having a pet wears off, neglect them and even abandon them. These abandoned pets become strays and multiply quickly, thus increasing the stray population.

You will be surprised how quickly they multiply. A female cat, or queen, for instance, can give birth to a litter of four to six kittens every four months; the kittens grow into adult cats within a few months. Each of the female cats give birth to their own litters, which, in turn give birth to more kittens, and so on. The tomcats keep impregnating all the females within reach. An unspayed queen cat can, according to conservative estimates, multiply into 49,000 cats in 10 years. Multiply that by the number of stray queens and you can see how the cat population can explode if something is not done.

Even if a queen is not a stray, if not spayed, she will have a litter in her human’s home even if there is no tomcat in the house. Stray tomcats are very good at sniffing females in heat; likewise, queens in heat will escape to seek a mate then go home and give birth weeks later.

When that happens more than once, their humans, nine out of 10, will order the house help to abandon the kittens on a sidewalk or vacant lot. I have seen kittens and puppies thrown away—inside tightly-tied plastic bags so they would suffocate to death—in our neighborhood where supposedly educated humans live.

With dogs it is a little different. When a dog gives birth to a litter, the puppies are so cute that a visitor will ask for one. The owner is only too glad to give them away. In fact, they offer the puppies to friends. Some are sold in pet stores or on sidewalks. A passing human sees the cute puppies and buys one for his wife or child. They enjoy the puppy for a while, but when the puppy becomes an adult and is no longer cute, the humans get bored with it. Worse, if it is a bitch, she gives birth to her own litter and the rigmarole is repeated.

There should also be birth control among dogs and cats. But humans sometimes find spaying or neutering their dogs costly. So the dogs keep multiplying and when their humans cannot find other humans to adopt them, they throw them away. These become strays and, like the cats, they multiply. They also spread rabies.

Having animal shelters to take them will not solve the problem. In our country, there are only a handful of animal shelters and they are hard pressed for funding. If these shelters run by private citizens had not put policies or limits in place, irresponsible pet owners would take advantage of them and allow their pets to multiply, thinking that they could just leave the unwanted pets with these shelters. The common practice now is to dump animals in the streets.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Rabies Act does not allow dogs in the streets and states that strays should be collected by the local government units—which should have dog pounds, for which the euphemism is “shelter.” The fact is, in many LGUs, such facilities are focused on getting dogs off the streets and not on promoting the welfare of dogs.

But, really, what can the LGUs do with all those unwanted pets?

Mandaluyong, Pasig and Cainta, profess to have “no kill” animal pounds. But many pound volunteers have already seen that “no kill” simply translated into “slow kill.” While the animals are not injected with the euthanasia drug—which is still not registered in the Philippines and there is even a supply shortage of it in the local black market—the unclaimed animals are left to die because of lack of veterinary care and proper quarantine procedures, and because their nutritional requirements are not met. The pounds cannot refuse requests from taxpayers to collect dogs in the streets; so despite the fact that the pounds are full, the dogcatchers continue to cram the dogs in crowded cages. Eventually, the dogs die of disease. Those who are lucky enough to stay alive are kept in cages all day, which is also cruel. Very few families are willing to adopt them.

The answer is to keep the dogs and cats from multiplying. So the government animal “shelters” or pounds should also launch low-cost spay and neuter programs for pet owners and likewise, spay-neuter the adopted strays.

This is already being done in other countries, which also penalizes humans who abandon their pets. I was told that there is this new provision penalizing pet abandonment under the amended Animal Welfare Act.

But even that may not be enough. Dog fighting continues and the slaughter of dogs for “pulutan” by drunkards makes for a prosperous “industry” because the laws are not implemented strictly. When a dog trafficker is caught taking a jeepload of dogs to Baguio to be slaughtered and eaten, he is not sent to prison but merely made to pay a fine. So he goes back to his lucrative business. The law has to be strengthened, and the authorities should be pressured into implementing it to the letter.

Also, humans should be taught to be responsible pet owners. Pet owners should be given seminars on responsible pet ownership, which should be likewise taught in schools so the children can impart the knowledge to their parents. Only then will we be able to end cruelty to animals.

Four cats belonging to a single family in Telford have been killed by a suspected deliberate act of poisoning, the RSPCA warned today.

It is believed they were fed either antifreeze or rat poison in the latest attack of its kind.

The RSPCA today launched an investigation and said it would prosecute anyone responsible for poisoning animals.

Owner Mark Selley, from Telford, said he took the cats to the vets after noticing they were behaving strangely but was told there was nothing that could be done to save them.

Mr Selley, of Butchery Grove in Oakengates, said the four cats, Chester, 12, Arthur, 10, Amy, nine, and 12-month-old Betsy, were part of the family and he and wife Elaine, 60, had been left devastated.

“We first noticed there was something wrong when they came in for their tea on Sunday,” Mr Selley said.

“All of a sudden they started staggering all over the place, like they had been on the beer.

“It just got worse from there, it was horrendous having to watch them. As the day went on it got worse and when they started having seizures we knew we had to get them to the vets, but sadly it was too late.

“The vet said they had been poisoned by either antifreeze or rat poison.”

Poisoning cats is a criminal offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The maximum penalty for anyone found guilty is up to six months in prison or a fine up to a maximum of £20,000.

Mark Selley, who works for Forbo in Halesfield, said that all cat owners should take extra care during the winter months, when the use of antifreeze increases.

The 52-year-old said: “We are devastated, they were part of the family. You hope that there isn’t someone out there doing this deliberately, but I would urge people around here to keep a close eye on their cats just in case.”

It is not the first time families have lost cats as a result of poisoning in Shropshire. Back in 2012, police and RSPCA officials launched an investigation after eight cats were found dead in Shrewsbury in just two weeks. And in the same year, seven cats died in Telford over a similar two-week period after being poisoned with antifreeze.

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A warning was issued by the RSPCA at the time to residents not to add the chemical to water features or ponds. It was feared pets could be drinking the water.

RSPCA inspector Chris Dunbar said at the time: “The charity hopes that by warning the public of the animals’ unexpected deaths it may serve as a warning to other cat owners to report anything suspicious.

“People should not put antifreeze in water features in gardens as it can have devastating consequences for cats and other wild animals. If using antifreeze in the car the public are asked to please clean it up if any is spilled and to ensure that it is stored safely and securely.

“If you suspect that your cat has been poisoned you must take it to a vet immediately. If possible, you should take a sample of what the cat has consumed, or the container.”

Anyone who suspects an animal has been intentionally poisoned should call the RSPCA on 0300 123 4999.